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CIHM/ICMH 

Microfiche 

Series. 


CIHM/ICMH 
Collection  de 
microfiches. 


Canadian  Institute  for  Historical  Microreproductions  Institut  Canadian  de  mirroreproductions  historiques 

1980 


Technical  and  Bibliographic  Notes/Notes  techniques  et  bibliographiques 


The  Institute  has  attempted  to  obtain  the  best 
original  copy  available  for  filming.  Features  of  this 
copy  which  may  be  bibliographically  unique, 
which  may  alter  any  of  the  images  in  the 
reproduction,  or  which  may  significantly  change 
the  usual  method  of  filming,  are  checked  below. 


n 

n 

□ 

D 
D 


n 


D 


Coloured  covers/ 
Couverture  de  couleu 

Covers  damaged/ 
Couverture  endommaj^^e 

Covers  restored  and/or  lairiinated/ 
Couverture  restaurde  et/ou  pelliculde 

Cover  title  missing/ 

Le  titre  de  couverture  manque 

Coloured  maps/ 

Cartes  gdographiques  en  couleur 

Coloured  ink  (i.e.  other  than  blue  or  black)/ 
Encre  de  couleur  (i.e.  autre  que  bleue  ou  noire) 

Coloured  plates  and/or  illustrations/ 
Planches  et/ou  illustrations  en  couleur 

Bound  with  other  material/ 
Reli6  avec  d'autres  documents 

Tight  binding  may  cause  shadows  or  distortion 
along  interior  margin/ 

La  reliure  serr6e  peut  causer  de  I'ombre  ou  de  la 
distortion  le  long  de  la  marge  intdrieure 

Blank  leaves  added  during  restoration  may 
appear  within  the  text.  Whenever  possible,  these 
have  been  omitted  from  filming/ 
II  se  peut  que  certaines  pages  blanches  ajoutdes 
lors  d'une  restauration  apparaissent  dans  le  taxte, 
mais,  lorsque  cela  dtait  possible,  ces  pages  n'ont 
pas  6t6  film6es. 

Additional  comments:/ 
Commentaires  suppl6mentaires: 


L'Institut  a  microfilm^  le  meilleur  exemplaire 
qu'il  lui  a  6t6  possible  de  se  procurer.  Les  details 
de  cet  exemplaire  qui  sont  peut-dtre  uniques  du 
point  de  vue  bibliographique,  qui  peuvent  modifier 
une  image  reproduite,  ou  qui  peuvent  exiger  une 
modification  dans  la  mdthode  normale  de  filmage 
sont  indiqu6s  ci-des.'ious. 


I      I    Coloured  pages/ 


Pages  de  couleur 

Pages  damaged/ 
Pages  endommagdes 


D 
D 

n 
0 


Pages  restored  and/or  laminated/ 
Pages  restaurdes  et/ou  pellicul6es 

Pages  discoloured,  stained  or  foxed/ 
Pages  ddcolor^es,  tachet^es  ou  piqudes 

Pages  detached/ 
Pages  ddtach^es 

Showthrough/ 
Transparence 


r~~]    Quality  of  print  varies/ 


Qualitd  indgaie  de  I'impression 

Includes  supplementary  material/ 
Comprend  du  materiel  supplementaire 

Only  edition  available/ 
Seule  Edition  disponible 


n 


Pages  whcMy  or  partially  obscured  by  errata 
slips,  tissues,  etc.,  have  been  refilmed  to 
ensure  the  best  possible  image/ 
Les  pages  totalement  ou  partiellement 
obscurcies  par  un  feuillet  d'errata,  une  pelure, 
etc.,  ont  6t6  film^es  d  nouveau  de  fapon  d 
obtenir  la  meilleure  image  possible. 


r~7    This  item  is  filmed  at  the  reduction  ratio  checked  below/ 

1  /I    Ce  document  est  film*  au  taux  de  reduction  indiquA  ci-dessous. 


10X 

14X 

18X 

22X 

26X 

30X 

^ 

12X                             16X                             20X                              24X                             28X                             32X 

e 

6tails 
IS  du 
fiodifier 
ir  une 
ilmage 


The  copy  filmed  here  has  been  reproduced  thanks 
to  the  generosity  of: 

Library  of  the  Public 
Archives  of  Canada 


The  images  appearing  here  are  the  best  quality 
possible  considering  the  condition  and  legibility 
of  the  original  copy  and  in  keeping  with  the 
f  imiag  contract  specifications. 


L'exemplaire  film6  fut  reproduit  grice  d  la 
g6n6rosit6  de: 

La  bibliothdque  des  Archives 
publiques  du  Canada 

Les  images  suivantes  ont  6t6  reproduites  avec  le 
plus  grand  soin,  compte  tenu  de  la  condition  et 
de  la  nettetd  de  l'exemplaire  fiim6,  et  en 
conformity  avec  les  conditions  du  contrat  de 
filmage. 


Original  copies  in  printed  paper  covers  are  filmed 
beginning  with  the  front  cover  and  ending  on 
the  last  page  with  a  printed  or  illustrated  impres- 
sion, or  the  back  cover  when  appropriate.  All 
other  original  copies  are  filmed  beginning  on  the 
first  page  with  a  printed  or  illustrated  impres- 
sion, and  ending  on  the  last  page  with  a  printed 
or  illustrated  impression. 


es 


Les  exemplaires  originaux  dont  la  couverturo  en 
papier  est  imprim6e  sont  film6s  en  commenpant 
par  le  premier  plat  et  en  terminant  soit  par  la 
dernidre  page  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
d'impression  ou  d'illustration,  soit  par  le  second 
plat,  selon  le  cas.  Tous  les  autres  exemplaires 
originaux  sont  film6s  en  commenpant  par  Ie: 
premidre  page  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
d'impression  ou  d'illustration  et  en  terminant  par 
la  dernidre  page  qui  comporte  une  telle 
empreinte. 


The  last  recorded  frame  on  each  microfiche 
shall  contain  the  symbol  — ^  (meaning  "CON- 
TINUED"), or  the  symbol  y  (meaning  "END"), 
whichever  applies. 


Un  des  symboles  suivants  apparaitrn  sur  la 
dernidre  image  de  cheque  microfiche,  selon  le 
cas:  le  symbole  ^^  signifie  "A  SUIVRE",  le 
symbole  V  signifie  "FIN". 


Maps,  plates,  charts,  etc.,  may  be  filmed  at 
different  reduction  ratios.  Those  too  large  to  be 
entirely  included  in  one  exposure  are  filmed 
beginning  in  the  upper  left  hand  corner,  left  to 
right  and  top  to  bottom,  as  many  frames  as 
required.  The  following  diagrams  illustrate  the 
method: 


Les  cartes,  planches,  tableaux,  etc.,  peuvent  dtre 
film6s  d  des  taux  de  reduction  diffdrents. 
Lorsque  le  document  est  trop  grand  pour  dtre 
reproduit  en  un  seul  clichd,  il  est  film6  d  partir 
de  Tangle  supdrieur  gauche,  de  gauche  d  droite, 
et  de  haut  en  bas,  en  prenant  le  nombre 
d'imagus  n6cessaire.  Les  diaf^^ammes  suivants 
illustrent  la  mdthode. 


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T  F  f  E 


PROBLEM  OF  THE  NORTHMEN. 


A   LETTER  TO   JUDGE   DALY, 

fte   ^SresiOmt   of   t|]c   "amrrican   ffieograpljtcal  Soctrtg. 


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at  the  right  of  white  area.     Fish  pit  before  white  area. 


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Fish  pit  on  line  of  stream  fnim  the  hij^h  lands  of  Mt.  Auburn  Cemetery  in  centre.  Corner  of  site  of 
Thorfnm's  lonj;  house  in  left  foreground.  Site  of  two  huts  on  the  rifilit  above  the  road  way.  Mt.  Auburn 
tower  above   the  more  distant  site. 


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THE 


PROBLEM  OF  THE  NORTHMEN. 

A  LETTER  TO  JUDGE  DALY, 

Wst  ^xtBititnt  of  tfje   American   (Sejgrapbtcal  Society, 

0J7  THE  OPINIO f/  OF  JUSTIN  IVINSOK,   TIIA  T 

"Though  Scandinavians  may  have  reached  the  Shores  of  Labrador,  the  soil  of 
THE  United  States  has  not  one  vestige  of  their  presence." 


BY 


EBEN   NORTON   HORSFORD. 


CAMBRipGEi  '    ■'  ■■  ■  ' 

JOHN  .WILSON  And  son. 
.•••.V-   ■•••1889. 


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PREFACE. 

In  the  interest  of  the  reader  I  have  thought  to  add  to  the 
recently  published  letter  to  the  President  of  the  American 
Geographical  Society,  a  few  heliotypes  borrowed  from  two 
papers  now  in  press,  and  include  them  in  an  edition  for  private 
circulation. 


■■Hi 


n 


m 


THE    PROBLEM    OF    THE    NORTHMEN, 


Judge  Daly,  President  of  the  American  Geographical  Society. 

Dear  Sir,  —  As  relating  to  my  letter  addressed  to  you  March  i,  1885, 
on  "  The  Landfall  of  John  Cabot  in  1497  and  the  site  of  Norumbega,"  and 
published  in  the  October  Bulletin  of  the  same  year,  I  desire  to  make  to 
you  the  following  communication. 

My  eye  has  fallen  on  two  brief  paragraphs  on  page  98,  Vol.  I.,  the  last 
issued  of  the  seven  volumes  of  the  "  Narrative  and  Critical  History  of 
America."  They  may  be  found  in  the  chapter  on  "  Precolumbian  Explora- 
tions, by  Justin  Winsor,"  under  the  general  division  of  the  Discovery  of 
America  by  Northmen,  and  are  as  follows:  — 

"  Nothing  could  be  slenderer  than  the  alleged  correspotidenccs  of  lan- 
guages;  and  zoe  can  see  in  Horsford's  '  Discovery  of  America  by  Northmen ' 
to  ivhat  a  fanciful  extent  a  confident  enthusiasm  can  carry  it. 

"  The  most  incautious  linguistic  inferences,  and  the  most  uncritical 
cartographical  perversions,  are  presented  by  Eben  Norton  Horsford  in  his 
'  Discovery  of  America  by  Northmen.'  " 

These  paragraphs  are  preceded  by  a  fragment  of  history,  as  follows : 

"  The  question,"  —  to  wit,  the  Landfall  of  the  Northmen,  and  the  trust- 
worthiness of  the  Vinland  Sagas  in  regard  to  their  experiences  and  the 
detailed  events  of  their  stay  on  any  part  of  the  coast  of  New  England,  — 


■Hi! 


itfHHHMMi 


6  THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  NORTHMEN. 

says  Mr.  Winsor,  "was  brought  to  a  practical  issue  in  Massachusetts  by  a 
proposition  raised,  at  first  in  Wisconsin  by  the  well-known  musician  Ole 
Bull,  to  erect  in  Boston  a  statue  to  Leif  Ericson.     The  project,  though 
ultnnately  carried  out,  was  long  delayed,  and  was  discouraged  by  memblrs 
of  the  Massachusetts   Historical  Society,  on   the  ground  that  no  satisfac- 
tory  evidence   existed   to   show    that  any  spot  in  New  England  had  been 
reached  by  the  Northmen.     The  sense  of  the  Society  was  fully  [^j  expressed 
m   the  report  of  their  committee  \?\  Henry    IV.  Haynes  and  Abner   C. 
Goodell,  >.,  in  language  which  seems  to  be  the  result  of  the  best  historical 
critutsm  :  for  it  is  not  a  question  of  the  fact  of  discovery,  but  to  decide  how 
far  we  can  place  reliance  on  the  details  of  the  Sagas.     There  is  likely  to 
remain  a  difference  on  this  point.     The  committee  say:  — 

'"  There  is  the  same  sort  of  reason  for  believing  in  Leif  Ericson  that 
there  ts  for  believing  in  the  existence  of  Agamemnon,  -  they  are  both  tradi- 
ttons  accepted  by  the  later  writers;  but  there  is  no  more  reason  for  regarding 
as  true  the  details  related  about  his  discoveries,  than  there  is  for  accepting  as 
historical  truth  the  narratives  contained  in  the  Homeric  poems.  It  is  ante- 
cedently probable  that  the  Northmen  discovered  America  in  the  early  part 
of  the  eleventh  century;  and  this  discovery  is  confirmed  by  the  same  sort 
of  historical  tradition,  not  strong  enough  to  be  called  evidence,  upon  which  our 
belief  in  many  of  the  accepted  facts  of  history  rests.' " 

.  '^'^^  following  on  page  93.  quoting  from  Bancroft's  third  edition,  to  the 
intent  that  though  "  Scandinavians  may  have  reached  the  shores  of  Labrador, 
the  soil  of  the  United  States  has  not  one  vestige  of  their  presence,  is  true 
nozvr  says  Mr.  Winsor,  "«.  when  first  written.^  This  leaves  no  doubt  of 
the  assurance  of  Mr.  Winsor's  conviction  that  Mr.  Bancroft  was  a  geogra- 
pher  as  well  as  an  historian. 

Happy  Rafn  and  Kohl,  Humboldt  and  Adam  von  Bremen,  that  they 
were  not  called  to  listen  to  such  judgment! 

As  to  the  fitness  of  Labrador,  a  region  of  rocky  desolation,  ice-bound 
for  more  than   half  the  year,  to  be  the  Finland  of  the  Northmen,  where 


'^oitUtuWDiiiiiiijjjliiii    - 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE   NORTHMEN.  7 

according  to  the  Sagas  cattle  did  not  need  to  be  housed  in  winter,  where 
grapes  abounded  and  corn  grew  spontaneously,  —  a  land  of  forests  and 
meadows,  —  there  is  among  students  of  geography  no  difference  of  opinion. 
Anions  historians  the  case  seems  otherwise.  Let  us  hear  an  Icelandic 
authority  on  Vinland,  referred  to  and  cited  in  "  The  History  of  the 
United  States." 

"  Now  it  is  to  be  told  what  lies  opposite  Greenland.  .  .  .  There  are  such 
hard  frosts  there  that  it  is  not  habitable,  so  far  as  is  known.  South  of 
Greenland  is  Helluland ;  next  is  Markland,  from  thence  it  is  not  far  to 
Vinland  the  Good." 

As  to  what  impress  may  have  been  left  by  Northmen  on  the  soil  of 
the  United  States,  that  is  not  a  matter  of  authority,  but  of  what  may  be 
found  by  examination. 

Should  it  turn  out,  after  all,  that  the  Landfall  of  the  Northmen  has  been 
found,  and  also  the  site  and  remains  of  the  houses  Leif  and  Thorfinn  built 
and  occupied  in  Vinland,  what  then  .'' ' 

It  is  quite  true  that  members  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society 
discouraged  the  efforts  of  the  immediate  friends  of  Ole  Bull  here,  and  the 
two  millions  of  Scandinavians  of  the  West  and  the  East  who  sympathized 
with  him,  in  his  patriotic  wish  to  recognize  in  a  monument,  to  be  set  up  in 

'  Against  the  fly-leaf  I  have  placed  two  photographs  of  the  region  of  the  houses  of  Leif  and 
Thorfinn.  The  upper  one  presents  a  bayou,  through  which  the  stream  draining  the  eastern  slope  from 
Mt.  Auburn  flows  to  the  Charles,  — just  outside  the  limit  of  the  picture.  The  extension  of  the 
bayou  to  the  roadway  of  the  "Bank  Lane"  is  given  in  the  lower  picture.  Just  above  tlie  road  is  one 
of  the  fish-pits,  at  the  margin  of  high  tide  and  upland  described  in  the  Sagas,  into  which  the  tish  found 
their  w.ay  at  the  time  of  young  corn-plants,  on  their  way  to  spawning-ground  on  the  slopes  of 
Mt.  Auburn,  the  tower  of  which  is  given  at  the  upper  right.  At  the  lower  left  in  the  foreground  are 
the  remains  in  the  uneven  surf.ace,  before  the  grass  has  started,  of  a  corner  of  the  large  house  of 
Thorfmn's  party.  In  the  distance,  in  the  middle  of  tlie  upper  picture,  is  the  "Promontory  at  the 
Southwest;'  as  described  in  the  Sagas,  from  behind  which  the  Skraelings  issued.  In  the  wood  at  the 
right  is  the  locality  of  the  battle  with  Thorfinn'.s  men,  which  led  him  to  .abandon  Vinland. 

The  landing-place  of  Thorfinn  on  his  coming  from  tlie  scarcli  for  Thorhall,  as  described  in  the 
Sagas,  is  near  two  stumps  at  the  upper  right  of  the  lirgo  white  spice.  It  is  the  only  spot  where 
solid  land  reaches  the  bayou,  in  width  admitting  the  beam  of  the  ship.  LeiPs  landing-pl.ice  and 
house  were  ne.nr  the  lower  left  of  the  upper  picture.     In  the  extreme  distance  is  Corey's  Hill. 

At  the  end  of  the  brochure  will  be  found  a  survey  of  the  site  of  the  remains  of  the  Northmen's 
houses. 


ikiMi! 


8 


THE   PROBLEM   OF   THE   NORTHMEN. 


Boston,  the  services  of  Leif  Ericson  in  the  discovery  of  America.  It  is 
also  true  that  they  virtually  caused  the  rejection  by  the  city  government  of 
Boston  of  the  offer  by  the  late  Mr.  Thomas  Appleton  of  $40,000  for  the 
erection  of  a  memorial  in  ScoUay  Square  to  the  Discovery  of  America  by 
Northmen. 

It  is  also  true  that  in  the  paragraphs  cited  there  is,  in  carefully  chosen 
terms,  and  in  a  tone  of  conscious  infallibility  better  suited  to  an  earlier  day 
and  another  meridian,  an  intimation  of  the  proper  limit  of  geographical 
research,  and  of  who  may  pursue  it,  in  New  England ;  and  there  is  also 
an  undertone  of  recognized  authority,  —  all  of  which  will  find  adequate 
appreciation.     One  may  ask,  Is  Massachusetts  a  preserve? 

But  underneath  these  confessions  and  assumptions,  the  first  and 
most  obvious  expression  of  the  paragraphs,  tal:en  together,  is  the  uncon- 
scious admission  that  the  problem  of  the  Northmen  has  been  again  es- 
sayed, and  the  assailants  have  been  vanquished.  They  have  mistaken  a 
question  of  geography  for  one  of  bibliography  —  and  song. 

We  are  given  an  estimate  of  the  value  of  comparative  philology  in 
finding  out  the  meanings  or  spellings  of  ancient  and  obscure  geographical 
names.  To  those  competent  to  appreciate  the  wealth  of  revelation  in 
geography  there  may  be  in  so  small  a  matter  as  the  identity  of  Norvega 
and   Norumbega}    this   view   of   the    instrument  which   Champollion  and 


1  Norvega  and  AWiimhega.  I  introduce  three  fragments  of  mips.  Two  are  from  Winsor's 
"  Narnitive  and  Critical  History  of  America,"  the  outlines  from  Ortelius,  1570,  and  from  Hotero,  1603. 
The  third  is  a  map  for  which  I  am  indebted  to  the  late  classic  fceojrrapher.  J.  Carson  Brevoort.  who  as 
a  young  man  served  as  attache  to  the  Legation  of  Washington  Irving  at  the  Court  of  M.idrid,  where 
he  may  have  procured  the  map.  It  will  be  seen  that  they  are  all  copies  at  first  or  second  hand  of 
a  common  original.  They  are  all  maps  of  Nova  Francia.  On  Solis's  map  the  "  river  flowing  through 
a  lake  to  the  .sea  "  flows  also  through  Norvega,  a  province  of  Norw.ay,  —  its  equiv.alent,  —  as  .■,hown 
on  the  ma])s  of  the  period.  One  does  not  need  to  be  told  th.at  the  Norvega  in  sm.ailer  tvjie  against 
the  character  that  stands  for  a  settlement  is  in  the  country  which  Leif  called  ['////rtWrt',  and  which 
centuries  later  was  known  as  Norumbega.  As  I  have  for  four  years  been  eng.aged  on  the  History 
of  Norumbega,  I  do  not  propose  to  go  into  it  here.  This  fragment  is  introduced  merely  to  illus- 
trate th.it  this  bit  of  comparative  philology  alcne,  to  one  capable  of  appreciating  it,  contains  the 
solution  of  the  problem  of  the  Northmen. 

"  The  French  diplomatists  always  remembered  that  Boston  was  built  within  the  original  limits  of 
New  France  '   (Il,tncro//'s  Hhtory,  2d  edition,  p.  24). 


:\J    -eyes 


,iM  OA«r/n.u 


ORTELIUS,    1570. 


TMitv 


SOJ./S.  iscjf 


BOTF.BO,   1603. 


"'I'lii'.\    Siillnl  al.iiia  until  ll 
tliiiiiiijli  !i   iHlii'  «"'l  litti*"*''!  1"'"  ''»'  '*''''■" 


iry  .■mil.'  to  H   river.   ulHcli  llmvol   Iroiil  Itii'  laiiM 

Tlii)rllni\'s  Hiijia. 


M 


iBiMlMHH 


A/l;-  '* -' '  — T-_ ;.■'     -v. 


./ 


_>' 


}!T\ 


^y-u.. 


r 


^-j»^,ji„  i.>«ii>iSifagpiin.aiit.j„„, 


^*^--m^i^^i2jd.^^l^w 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  NORTHMEN. 


9 


Grimm  and  Max  MuUer  and  our  own  Whitney  and  Trumbull  have  placed 
in  our  hands  will  give  occasion  for  mingled  pain  and  merriment. 

There  is  another  judgment  which  is  somewhat  more  personal.  It  is 
cited  above,  and  as  it  is  not  impossible  that  it  may  be  the  last  of  its 
type,  it  is  entitled  to  particular  consideration.  It  reads:  "The  most 
incautious  linguistic  inferences,  and  the  most  uncritical,  cartographical 
perversions,  are  presented  in  Eben  Norton  Horsfords  'Discovery  of 
America  by  Norihmen.'  " 

I  understand  this  to  be  an  opinion  concerning  the  trustworthiness  of  my 
methods  of  studying  geographical  problems.     They  are  disapproved. 

The  author  of  this  paragraph  has  just  completed  the  editing  of  the 
"Narrative  and  Critical  History  of  America,"  —  one  of  the  monumental 
works  of  the  time.  The  papers  of  a  large  number  of  specialists,  includ- 
ing the  editor  himself,  have  been  gathered,  and  the  authorities  bearing 
upon  the  subjects  discussed  have  been  sought  out,  referred  to,  and  com- 
mented on,  and  the  whole  illustrated  on  a  generous  scale.  This  work 
had  been  preceded  by  a  "  Memorial  History  of  Boston,"  on  the  same 
general  plan.  Naturally  enough,  weight  attaches  to  the  editor's  opinions ; 
and  if  it  were  to  be  estimated  by  the  volume  of  work  he  has  performed, 
it  would  deservedly  be  very  considerable,  and  there  might  be  some  diffi- 
culty in  fairly  measuring  it.  But  he  has  taken  the  trouble  to  make  the 
task  a  light  one.  He  has  adopted  and  practised  a  method  of  geographic  cil 
research  somewhat  in  vogue,  but  which,  possibly,  will  be  hereafter  regarded 
as  peculiarly  his  own ;  and  its  value  in  science  can  be  estimated  by  look- 
ing at  its  fruit.  The  weight  which  should  be  accredited  to  his  judgment 
of  my  method  will  be  seen  by  a  comparison  of  the  fruit  of  my  method 
with  the  fruit  of  the  method  the  critic  approves  and  practises. 

This  comparison  may  be  easily  made.  I  cannot  avoid  it;  and  under 
the  circumstances  it  will  not  be  unseemly  in  me  to  allude  to  some  fruits, 
already  published  (and  others  in  press,  or  in  preparation  for  it),  of  the 
methods  I  have  pursued.     They  include  — 


^ 


lO 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  NORTHMEN. 


1.  Geographical  names,  of  JVone  derivation,  on  numerous  maps,  ancient 
and  modern,  in  Icelandic,  Algonquin,  Portuguese,  Spanish,  French,  Dutch, 
Italian,  or  English  garb,  strewn  from  Vineyard  Sound,  in  latitude  41°, 
throughout  the  territory  reaching  to  and  including  the  St.  Lawrence. 

2.  The  finding  of  the  Land  of  the  Bretons  (French)  of  the  15th  and 
i6th  centuries,  in  the  43d  degree. 

3.  The  Landfall  of  John  Cabot,  1497,  in  42°  38',  —  the  ^rcit  event 
of  the  15th  century,  —  on  which,  with  all  the  glory  that  belongs  to  it, 
rests  the  earliest  claim  of  the  sovereignty  of  England  to  the  American 
Continent. 

4.  The  Landfall  of  Cortereal  in  1500. 

5.  The  Landfall  of  Verrazano  on  Cape  Cod  in  1524,  and  the  identity 
of  Cape  Cod  with  the  Florida  of  Verrazano  and  Thevet. 

6.  The  Canal  of  St.  Julian  (St.  Johan),  the  Bay  of  the  Bretons,  the 
Archipelago,  and  the  Land  —  of  Gomez,  explored  in  1525. 

7.  The  Landfall  of  John  Rut  in  1527,  and  the  identity  of  the  St.  John's 
of  John  Rut  with  Gloucester  Harbor,  from  which  he  addressed  his  letter 
to  Henry  VIII. 

8.  The  identity  of  the  Cape  Breton  of  Allefonsce,  in  the  43d  degree, 
with  the  Cape  Ann  of  Prince  Charles. 

9.  The  identity  of  the  Kjolr-nes  (Kjalarnes  is  the  genitive)  of  the 
Northmen  in  1003,  with  the  Coaranes  of  Merriam,  the  Carenas  of  Lok, 
the  C.  de  Arenas  of  Mercator,  the  Cap  des  Sablons  of  the  Dauphin  map 
of  1543,  the  Cap  Blanc  of  Champlain  in  1605,  the  Insel  Baccalaurus  of 
Ruysch,  1507,  and  its  equivalent,  the  Cape  Cod  of  Gosnold,  1602. 

10.  The  meaning  of  the  Indian  names  of  Boston,  the  identity  of  Cabel- 
yau  with  Baccalieu,  —  Bacca-loo,  Algonquin  for  Bay  food,  Cod, —  and  the 
identity  of  the  Juuide  of  Thevet  with  the  modern  Point  Judy  of  Rhode 
Island. 

11.  That  the  Isthmus  of  Verrazano  separating  the  Atlantic  from  the 
western  ocean  — the  Mare  Indicum,  the  Mare  Verrazana,  the  Pacific  — 
was  simply  the  neck  of  the  Peninsula  of  Cape  Cod  near  Barnstable. 


.1  >■■.  - 


THE  PROBLEM   OF  THE   NORTHMEN. 


II 


12.  That  Sebastian  Cabot,  in  his  map  of  1544,  mistook  the  Penobscot 
and  the  group  of  islands  (the  discovery  and  cartography  of  others)  off  the 
coast  of  Maine  for  the  St.  Lawrence  and  Newfoundland  at  its  mouth. 
That  the  part  of  the  map  of  1544  including  New  England  and  New  France 
was  an  attempt  to  produce  a  work  that  should  have  the  air  of  original 
discoveries  made  prior  to  Verrazano  and  Jacques  Cartier,  clumsily  dis- 
guising some  of  the  names  Cartier  gave,  replacing  those  on  the  Dauphin 
map  with  others  in  duplicate  to  occupy  the  space,  stretching  out  the 
coast  from  Plymouth  (the  Bay  of  St.  Christopher)  at  the  Panther's  tail, 
on  his  map,  to  Cape  Ann  (the  prima  tierra  vista),  at  the  best  not 
sixty  miles  to  the  immediate  north,  in  latitude  42°  38',  until  the  coast 
line  comprised  thirty  degrees  of  longitude,  and  ended  at  Cape  North  in 
latitude  47°,  — the  mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence. 

13.  That  the  original  New-found-land  of  John  Cabot,  1497,  including 
the  (supposed)  two  islands  passed  on  his  return  voyage  and  shown  on 
Cosa's  map,  faced  Massachusetts  Bay. 

14.  That  Terra  Corterealis  and  the  Land  of  Gomez  overlaid  the  New- 
found-land and  Islands  of  Cabot.  The  original  New  France,  —  Francesca 
of  Verrazano  of  1524,  —  embracing  the  same  region,  was  subsequently  ex- 
tended by  Jacques  Cartier  in  1534-35  over  the  shores  of  the  St.  Lawrence. 

15.  The  Fort  of  Norumbega  of  Wytfliet  (Ptolemy,  1597),  occupied  by, 
but  not  the  work  of,  the  Bretons,  as  Thevet  supposed. 

16.  The  explanation  of  why  the  coast  between  Cape  Cod  and  the 
neighborhood  of  St.  Augustine  so  long  remained  practically  undiscovered. 

17.  That  the  north  end  of  Cape  Cod  was  an  island  down  to  some 
time  in  the  17th  century,  as  shown  on  the  maps  of  Ruysch,  Cosa,  AUe- 
fonsce,  and  others,  and  as  observed  by  Leif  and  Gosnold. 

18.  That  it  was  on  this  island  that  Leif  made  his  Landfall  before  he 
turned  away  to  Boston  Harbor  and  the  shores  of  Charles  River  to  set  up 
his  dwellings. 

I  will  ask  attention  to  only  one  more. 


iiial 


Hi 


m 


■iUHMMMIl 


12 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  NORTHMEN. 


In  my  letter  of  March  i,  1885,  already  referred  to,  I  recorded  that  the 
site  of  Fort  Norumbega  was  first  found  in  the  literature  of  the  subject,  and 
that  when  I  had  eliminated  every  doubt  of  the  locality  that  I  could  find, 
I  drove  with  a  friend  through  a  region  I  had  never  before  visited,  of  the 
topography  of  which  I  knew  nothing,  nine  miles  away,  directly  to  the 
remains  of  the  Fort.  These  remains,  and  the  region  immediately  about, 
were  at  once  surveyed  and  mapped  for  me  by  the  City  Engineer. 

In  a  certain  sense  there  was,  in  this  discovery,  the  fulfilment  of  a 
prophecy.  On  the  basis  of  the  literature  of  the  subject  I  had  predicted 
the  finding  of  Fort  Nortimbega  at  a  particular  spot.  I  went  to  the  spot 
and  found  it.  No  test  of  the  genuineness  of  scientific  deduction  is  re- 
garded as  superior  to  this.  Professor  Henry  used  to  say,  "  Science  can 
predict."  I  had  not  guessed,  —  though  any  one  may  guess,  of  course.  But 
if  one  does,  to  test  the  guess  or  the  hypothesis  by  the  touchstones  of  physi- 
cal fact,  sequence,  mutual  relation,  harmony  of  all  parts  with  each,  and 
the  utter  absence  of  an  element  of  opposing  evidence,  is  what  the  scientific 
method  requires.  Moreover,  the  scientific  man  does  not  hesitate  for  an 
instant  to  abandon  his  hypothesis  if  it  fails  in  a  single  particular  to  sus- 
tain this  test.  The  Fort  of  Norumbega  had  passed  through  the  ordeal. 
Prediction  and  fulfilment  of  course  involve  time.  Thevet's  record  waited 
nearly  three  hundred  and  fifty  years.* 

19.  The  remaining  discovery  to  which  I  have  alluded  is  of  the  kind 
just  presented, — prediction  z,ndi  fulfilment. 

The  letter  of  four  years  ago,  on  the  Landfall  of  John  Cabot  and  the 
site  of  Norumbega,  indicated,  as  distinctly  as  at  the  time  to  me  seemed 
fit,  my  conviction  of  the  identity  of  the  Kjalarncs  of  Thorwald  and  Tlior- 
finn  with  the  Carenas   of  Lok,  —  the  great  primo'y  fact  in  determining 

'  This  discoverer  has  been  greatly  wronged,  in  ignorance  of  course,  —  even  charged  with  forgery 
of  Indian  phrases,  the  writer  not  recognizing  in  Thevet's  records  the  ancient  Iroquois  spoken  at  the 
time  at  Montre.il,  as  well  as  in  the  neighborhood  of  Uoston  (Champlain).  Some  of  Thevet's  words, 
naturally  slightly  modified  in  spelling,  are  introduced  into  Lescarbot ;  and  lists  of  parallel  phrases, 
Including  many  of  the  words  Thevet  took  down,  m.iy  be  found  in  De  Laet  and  others. 


■■ 


THE   PROHLEM   OF   THE   NORTHMEN. 


U 


the  Landfall  of  Leif  on  Cape  Cod  and  the  site  of  the  Northmen's  houses 
in  Vinland.  It  was  of  the  character  of  recorded  prophecy.  This  is  what 
I  said :  "  The  map  of  Lok  presents  Carenas  [enough  recalling  Kjalarnes 
of  the  Norsemen  to  suggest  heirship],  the  C.  de  Arenas  in  various  forms 
of  so  many  maps  of  the  sixteenth  century,  the  Cape  Coci  of  Gosnold,  and, 
as  seems  to  be  determined  by  the  flags  of  Cosa's  map  of  1500,  the  southern 
limit  of  Cabot's  explorations  of  1497." 

At  my  address  in  Faneuil  Hall,  now  more  than  a  year  and  a  half  ago, 
on  the  occasion  of  the  unveiling  of  the  Statue  to  Leif,  I  placed  on  record, 
more  definitely,  another  prediction. 

I  spoke  of  Leif's  Landfall  and  the  site  of  his  houses  in  the  follow- 
ing terms :  "  He  came,  so  we  conceive,  upon  the  northern  extremity  of 
Cape  Cod,  and  set  up  his  dwellings  somewhere  on  an  indentation  of  the 
shore  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  the  site  of  which  may  yet  be  indicated." 

I  added  still  another  prediction.  Speaking  of  Gudrid,  the  wife  of  Thor- 
finn,  I  said:  "I  may  not  fail  to  mention  that  this  Gudrid  was  the  lady 
who,  after  the  death  of  her  husband,  made  a  pious  pilgrimage  to  Rome 
[from  Iceland],  where  she  was  received  with  much  distinction,  and  where 
she  told  the  Pope  of  the  beautiful  new  country  in  the  far  west,  of  '  Vinland 
the  Good,'  and  about  the  Christian  settlements  made  there  by  Scandinavians. 
Nor  may  I  forget  to  mention  that  her  son,  Snorre,  born  in  America  at  the 
site  of  Leifs  houses,  —  and p'-rhaps  it  may  some  day  be  possible  to  indicate 
the  neighborhood  of  his  birthplace  with  greater  precision,  —  has  been  claimed 
to  be  the  ancestor  of  Thorwaldsen,  the  Danish  sculptor." 

I  had  traced  the  course  of  Leif  in  the  Sagas,  from  his  touching  at  Cape 
Cod,  past  the  Gurnet  and  Cohasset,  to  his  grounding  on  soft  bottom,  on 
an  ebb  tide,  between  the  site  of  Faneuil  Hall  and  Noddle's  Island  (East 
Boston),  and  his  ascent  of  the  Charles  on  the  flood  tide  into  and  through 
the  Back  Bay  to  the  first  practicable  landing-place,  the  neighborhood  of 
which  it  was  not  difficult  to  indicate  in  general  terms,  on  tide-water.  So 
clear  was  the  language  of  the  Sagas  and  my  conviction,  that  I  veiled  the 
prophecies  and  gave  them  place  in  print. 


Mm 


;-iE'^^4^.  „.,•■«*<.  :"^  - 


H 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  NORTHMEN. 


Half  a  year  later,  at  a  scientific  gathering,  I  announced  the  discovery  of 
the  landing-place  of  Leif  between  two  points  scarcely  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
apart,  and  mapped  and  photographed  the  stage  of  my  conviction.^  Later,  I 
determined  the  spot  within  a  few  square  yards  of  where  Thorfinn  went  on 
shore  on  his  return  after  the  search  for  Thorhall,  and  again  mapped  and 
photographed  the  result  of  my  studies. 

But  it  is  only  since  the  ist  of  January,  1889,  that  I  have  looked  for 
memorials,  the  finding  of  which  I  had  with  purpose  vaguely  predicted. 
It  was  not  necessary  that  they  should  be  found,  to  complete  the  demon- 
stration. They  might  utterly  have  perished ;  but  happily  they  have  re- 
sisted the  corrosions  and  the  accidents  of  time,  and  the  encroachments 
of  increasing  population.  The  terms  of  the  Sagas  were  to  the  student  as 
descriptive  as  a  chart. 


THE   REMAINS   OF   LEIF'S   HOUSES. 

If  any  one  interested  will  walk  from  the  junction  of  Elmwood  Avenue 
with  Mt.  Auburn  Street,  —  the  residence  of  Professor  Lowell  in  Cambridge, 
—  a  few  rods  down  the  street  to  Gerry's  Landing,  and  then  follow  the  an- 
cient Bank  Lane  to  the  point  of  crossing  the  rivulet  draining  the  eastern 
slope  of  Mt.  Auburn  into  the  Charles,  he  will  be  at  the  site  of  the  objects 
of  interest  which  had  once  been  there,  and  which  I  had  predicted  might 
there  be  found. 

There  are  in  the  inequalities  of  the  surface  the  remains  of  two  long  log 
houses,  and  huts  or  cots,  —  possibly  not  less  than  five  huts,  —  along  a 
declivity  of  moderate  grade,  "  some  nearer,  some  farther  from  the  water," 
as  the  Sagas  say.     They  have  all  been  photographed. 

To  help  the  eye,  it  may  be  mentioned  that  throughout  rural  Norway 
and  Iceland  generally  there  prevails  now,  as  there  did,  as  a  general  thing. 


a' 


'  I  insert  two  charts  only  to  illustrate  the  method  which  I  have  pursued.  They  present  two 
stages  of  my  research.  In  one  I  had  seen  the  first  possible  landing-pl.ice  above  the  liack  Bay;  in 
the  second  I  had  not  gone  far  enough  to  individualize  between  the  landing-places.  They  seemed  to 
be  worth  preserving,  that  others  might  follow  up  the  subject,  should  I  for  any  reason  be  unable  to 
complete  the  research. 


\ 


I 


Cou 


Cc^amU^Y 


II 


?m:^-» 


^oiindiqjs  and  Corjtour  lii^ts  ii)  F\iver  Arf  taKei]  frorr}  plarj  madf  for  t 

p'gures  irjdicate  dtstarjce  above  or  belo^  tow  water,  sprirjg  tide  . 

f\oeK8  at  College   WFjarf  ai-e  beloW   ^)alf  tide.  L.  Leifs   Lai 

^     P^-epared   urjder  trjstructlot^s  b; 


[tr)  frow)  plary  madf  for  t\\t  Un'ted  States  iq  1JI61 . 
low  water,  sprirjg  tide  .     LoiV  w'ater    stjoWi-j  by  dottfc'  {iqe    - 
ilf  tide.  L.  Leifk   Landing   Place 
urfder  irjstructlot^s  by    L.)yr1-^AsUi7^6,  Civil  Erjgi^eer. 


■■'i'JIr.nfuat   I 


j-  %,..i,  *^'';,j  t.> 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  NORTHMEN. 


15 


nine  hundred  years  ago,  wherever  a  leader  and  his  company  established 
themselves,  a  principal  larger  house,  and  near  it,  if  needed,  a  number  of 
smaller  houses,  or  cots,  or  huts,  for  servants  and  laborers  (see  Bjornsen's 
article  in  "  Harper's  Monthly"  of  February,  1889,  page  426).  The  founda- 
tions of  the  Norse  houses  observed  by  Nordenskiold  in  Greenland  were 
long  and  narrow,  as  these  are,  and  Leif's  house  presented  its  length  to  the 
south  ;  such  has  been  the  immemorial  usage  of  Icelanders  in  building  their 
houses  (Saga  Time). 

To  have  an  idea  of  how  long  the  remains  of  such  structures  continue 
to  be  distinguishable,  dependent  as  they  are  on  the  artificial  unevenncss  of 
surface,  one  may  read  Lanciani's  description,  in  his  chapter  on  the  ruins  of 
the  Campagna,  of  terraces  preserved,  and  outlines  of  gardens  that  had  been 
abandoned  on  account  of  the  malaria  before  the  seventh  century,  to  be 
found  on  every  hand  within  twenty  miles  of  Rome  ;  or  he  may  recall, 
possibly,  his  own  recognition  of  the  remains  of  corn-hills  planted  half  a 
century  ago  and  left  undisturbed  by  cultivation  ;  or  he  may  have  seen  the 
palpable  Indian  paths  traversed  by  Indians  hundred  of  years  ago. 

There  are  also  to  be  seen  near  Thorfinn's  Landing  the  remains  of  at 
least  three  fish-pits  described  in  the  Sagas,  all  at  the  margin  of  extreme 
high  tide,  where  at  the  time  the  Indian  corn  had  just  appeared  above  the 
gruuiid  \nciv  soivn.  Beamish),  as  mentioned  by  Thorfinn.  The  fish  were 
ascending  the  river  then,  as  generally  they  are  at  the  season  of  young  corn- 
plants,  to  find  in  every  tributary  rivulet  their  spawning-ground. 

According  to  the  Sagas,  the  landing  of  Thorfinn  on  his  return  from 
seeking  Thorhall  was  on  the  soutlin'cst  bank ;  on  which  bank,  viewed  from 
Leif's  house  (afterwards  occupied  by  Thorwald,  Thorfinn,  and  Freydis), 
there  is,  by  reason  of  the  mud  of  the  marsh,  but  one  place  where,  with  a 
promontory  at  the  southwest,  such  landing  \s  possible.  It  was  from  behind 
this  promontory  that  the  Skraelings  (the  Indian  mob)  repeatedly  issued 
in  their  canoes,  and  behind  which  they  as  repeatedly  retired,  —  of  which 
promontories  there  is  but  one,  the  eastern  bluff  of  the  Cambridge  Cemetery, 
on   the  Charles.     Verrazano  gives   it  as  C.  St.  Margarita,  and   to-day   it 


^mmm 


mimmmmm 


i6 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  NORTHMEN. 


abounds  in  daisies  {Chrysanihcmum  Icucanthcmum).  Thorfinn  saw  the 
Skraelings  from  the  narrow,  long  house  Leif  had  lent  him,  —  its  side 
fronting  south.  The  site  of  Leifs  house  was  near  the  south  end  of  the 
ancient  bluff  of  Symonds  Hill,  and  immediately  behind  the  point  known 
as  Gerry's  Landing. 

It  was  oa  the  shore  of  a  Hdp,  "  a  small  land-locked  bay,  salt  at Jlood 
tide  and  fresh  at  ebb "  (Vigfusson),  that  Leifs  houses  —  the  Normatt 
Villa  on  Maiollo's  map  (Vcrrazano's,  1524)  and  the  Ulpius  globe,  1542  — 
were  set  up  nine  hundred  years  ago.  Vcrrazano  mentions  the  "lake  three 
leagues  around  "  in  his  letter  to  the  king,  1524.  It  was  "  tlic  lake  through 
which  a  river  Jlowcd  to  the  sea"  —  Leifs  guide  to  his  houses,  given  to 
Thorfinn  and  the  others.' 

These  are  among  the  geographical  treasures  that  my  methods  of  re- 
search have  enabled  me  to  gain  for  the  History  of  Massachusetts. 


THE    FRUIT   OF   MR.    U'INSOR'S    METHOD. 

We  now  come  to  the  method  which  Mr.  Winsor  approves.  We  iuive 
not  far  to  go  for  an  illustration.     I  shall  present  but  one. 

Ill  the  laticr  part  of  the  year  1S85,  Mr.  Winsor  discovered  in  the  town 
of  Weston,  at  the  mouth  of  Stony  Brook,  a  tributary  to  the  Charles,  —  one 
of  the  branches  of  the  Rio  Grande  on  so  many  maps  of  the  i6lh  century, — 
the  remains  of  an  early  effort,  under  the  direction  of  Winthrop,  to  lay  otit 
and  fortify  the  future  town  of  Boston. 

I  say  Mr.  Winsor  discovered  the  remains.  This  is  not  quite  correct. 
What  he  discovered  was  that  in  the  remains  of  an  excavation  for  a  ditch, 
estimated  by  him  to   be  scarcely  more  than  six  hundred  feet  long,  in  some 


'  If  one  may  illustrate  lesser  by  greater  instances  of  prophecy  and  fulfilment,  I  may,  without  un- 
worthy pride,  refer  to  the  study  of  the  Vinland  Sagas  and  the  pre<iictions  restin;;  u])on  them,  wliich 
I  made,  and  my  finding  the  places  and  the  remains  described  in  the  stories  of  Leif,  Thorwald,  and 
Thorfinn.  as  having  their  parallel  in  the  work  of  Pr.  Milch of'.r  and  Professor  Merriani,  of  Columbia 
College,  the  director  for  if-'S7-8,S  of  the  American  Classical  School  at  Athens,  in  the  discoi'try  of  the 
ancient  haria.     (See  Seventh  Annual  Reports  ) 


THE    I'KOliLEM    OF   THE   NORTHMEN. 


»7 


places  twelve  feet  deep,  and  through  much  of  the  distance  carefully  graded, 
and  paved  with  stone  on  the  bottom  and  sides,  there  were  only  evidences  of 
an  early  effort  on  the  part  of  Winthrop  and  a  detachment  of  his  company 
to  lay  out  and  fortify  the  future  capital  of  Massachusetts. 

As  a  matter  of  history,  within  a  few  weeks  after  I  had  discovered  the 
site  of  Fort  Norumbega,  described  with  much  precision  in  the  early  litera- 
ture of  the  subject,  and  figured  in  Ptolemy  (Wytfliet,  1597),  I  invited  Mr. 
Winsor  to  drive  with  me  to  the  mouth  of  Stony  Brook,  some  nine  miles 
from  Cambridge,  where  I  pointed  out  the  details  of  a  ditch,  as  far  as  I  had 
studied  them.  I  subsequently  gave  him  a  map  of  the  spot,  prepared  by 
the  Engineer  of  the  Cambridge  Water-works,  and  my  paper  containing  the 
demonstration  that  the  work  was  Fort  Norumbega,  described  by  Thevet, 
and,  less  definitely,  by  others. 

He  regarded  it  as  a  piece  of  guess-work.  Wiiy  should  he  not  guess  ? 
He  guessed  it  was  an  early  Boston,  planned  by  Winthrop,  and  the  work 
performed  by  a  part  of  his  invalid  company. 

Now,  while  a  guess  may  be  evidence  of  the  fertility  of  the  imagination, 
and  has  its  proper  place  in  re.search,  it  is,  at  the  best,  only  the  extempo- 
raneous chalk-sketch,  that  may  vanish  with  the  first  brush  that  tests  the 
substance  of  its  foundation,  —  the  last  thing  to  be  given  to  the  world,  till 
it  has  been  tested. 

What  followed  the  guess  .''     Let  us  see. 

He  presented  it  to  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  and  sent  an 
outline  of  his  communication  to  the  "  Evening  Transcript,"  of  which  the 
following  is  an  extract :  — 

"  Mr.  Winsor  made  a  communication  in  reference  to  a  ditch  and  em- 
bankment found  in  Weston,  at  the  confluence  of  Stony  Brook  with  the 
Charles,  which  indicate,  as  has  been  lately  said,  that  a  trading-post  and 
fort  were  erected  there  by  the  French  in  the  early  part  of  the  i6th  cen- 
tury. He  gave  reasons  for  the  opinion  that  these  relics  may  mark  the  site 
of  an  early  attempt  to  found  the  town  of  Boston  there,  since,  soon  after  the 


wm 


l8 


THE  PROHLEM  OF  THE  NORTHMEN. 


arrival  of  Winthrop  at  Salem,  lie  sei  out  for  Charlestown.,  tvhence,  with 
a  party,  he  explored  the  neighboring  rivers  for  a  convenient  spot  /"  found 
their  town,  and  discovered  such  a  place  '  three  leagues  up  Charles  J^iver.'  " 


To  this,  as  published,  I  replied  on  the  day  of  its  api)oaiance,  and  my 
reply  appeared  in  the  "  TranscrijJt  "  of  January  9.  I  did  not  dwell  on 
the  circumstance  that  my  paper,  and  its  demonstration  tliat  the  earth-and- 
stone  works  at  the  mouth  of  Stony  Brook  had  been  described  and  occupied 
by  the  Bretons  (French)  n.arhi  thrc-  hundred  and  fifty  years  before,  had 
been  treated  as  a  mere  guess.  I  tried  to  place  the  mistake  of  the  discov- 
ery of  ti.e  early  Boston  at  Stony  Brook  in  what  seemed  to  me  clear  light, 
calling  attention  to  the  magnitude  of  the  work  required  to  be  done  by  a 
few  feeble  men  in  a  very  short  time,  —  a  graded  ditch,  some  of  it  origi- 
nally ten  to  twelve  feet  deep,  and  much  of  it  paved  on  the  bottom  and 
sides  (and  therefore,  as  any  one  might  see,  impossible  to  be  regarded  as 
awaiting  posts  for  a  permanent  stockade).  I  alluded  to  the  adverse  testi- 
mony  of  Winthrop's  own  map  of  1634  ;  his  diary  of  his  first  visit  to  Stony 
Brook,  a  year  and  a  half  after  he  had  determined  that  the  present  Boston 
should  be  the  seat  of  government,  and  an  almost  equal  time  since  the  first 
session  of  the  Assistants  had  been  held  at  his  house  in  Boston ;  the  ab- 
sence of  any  supporting  contemporaneous  or  subsequent  history ;  the 
impossibility  of  getting  ordnance,  baggage,  and  stores  up  the  shallow 
Charles,  falling  in  a  distance  of  five  miles,  as  it  did,  in  alternating  rapids 
and  pools,  thirty-five  feet  from  Stony  Brook  to  tide-water  at  Watertown  ; 
the  jealous  Dudley's  conclusive  letter  to  the  Countess  of  Lincoln ;  and 
much  more. 

At  length  Mr.  Winsor's  full  paper  appeared.  To  my  surprise,  the  whole 
of  what  I  had  said  of  the  earth-and-stone  work  as  being  the  remains  of  an 
ancient  fort,  the  story  of  which  was  embedded  in  the  literature  of  geogra- 
phy, was  practically  ignored.  To  an  elaborate  defence  of  his  guess,  includ- 
ing abundant  citations  from  early  records,  he  gave  the  following  additional 
reasons  for  his  first  conviction  :  — 


Stdlif    \v:ill    :iij<l    (MIimI    ui    ilitili    iifiii     Nhim-    ii:i 


Sliiiii     u:il|    .'iml  i-:iii:il   lU'Mi    tlir    Ndi-c   |):iiii   :mil   Sili|cv'>   Statimi.    Kitrlilmii;    l>.    U 


J5 


THE   PROnLEM   OF  THE   NORTHMEN.  19 

"  The  fact  that  the  embankment  is  continued  three  hundred  feet  both 
north  and  south  from  the  enclosed  portion  [the  fort]  in  a  way  to  afford  no 
protection  against  attack,  seems  to  indicate  that  the  whole  is  but  a  seg- 
ment of  a  line  of  circumvallation  which  was  left  unfinished,  the  stockade 
not  being  planted  in  the  portions  already  excavated."  It  will  be  borne 
in  mind  that  just  such  an  extensive  circumvallation  as  may  have  been 
here  intended  was,  some  months  later,  established  at  Cambridge." 

He  did  not  omit  to  leave  a  hint  of  his  consciousness  that  he  might  have 
overtasked  the  credulity  of  his  readers  as  well  as  of  himself.  The  paper 
was  printed  for  permanent  preservation  in  the  Records  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Historical  Society.  It  was  also  published,  as  seemed  to  me  due,  in  a 
second  letter  from  myself,  in  the  "  Boston  Evening  Transcript "  of  Feb. 
24,  1886,  in  which  I  dismissed  the  discussion,  so  far  as  I  was  concerned, 
in  what  was  intended  as  the  briefest  record  of  Mr.  Winsor's  preferred 
views,  in  his  own  words. 

It  was  only  then  that  I  fully  appreciated  the  situation.  The  consider- 
ations that  I  had  pr -xM^ted,  the  charts,  the  measurements,  the  historic 
records,  had  failed  to  ove  the  conviction  that  the  guess  had  founded. 
His  method  required  t,.  'le  ffuess  should  be  defended,  in  the  face  of  what 
seemed  to  me  the  plainest  common-sense.  He  still  presented  records  in 
its  support,  and  still  failed  to  see  that  there  had  been  a  demonstration  that 
the  works  at  Stony  Brook  were  described  some  centuries  ago. 

His  method  permitted  all  this,  and  it  did  not,  in  his  judgment,  require 
a  more  careful  examination  of  the  spot,  —  a  secotid  visit  to  the  locality.  Had 
he  made  it,  he  would  have  found,  a  little  later,  the  water  of  the  pond  above 
drawn  down,  displaying  a  fresh  section  of  the  ditch  paved  throughout, 
making  all  together,  with  the  circuit  of  the  fort,  a  length  for  the  "  stock- 
ade"(!)  of  2,350  feet;  he  would  have  found  paved  ditches  on  both  sides  of 
the  brook  ;  and  had  he  followed  the  brook  toward  its  source,  he  would  have 

■  The  length  of  ditch  .ilready  explored  as  indicated  on  Mr.  Davis's  chart  of  Norumbega,  by  the 
scale  which  he  gives,  is  on  one  side  of  the  tort  Coo  feet,  and  on  the  other  500  feet. 


'*" 


20  THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  NORTHMEN. 

found  ditches,  at  intervals,  far  away,  — at  least  to  a  point  beyond  the  cross- 
ing of  the  Massachusetts  Central  Railroad  some  ///nv  mi/cs  above.  Much  of 
the  lower  part  of  the  valley  is  now  submerged  by  the  new  reservoir  for  the 
Cambridge  Water-works.  But  had  his  method  required  it.  he  could  have 
consulted  the  records  of  the  Engineer's  office.  Had  he  done  so  he  would 
have  tound  that  his  unfinished  palisade,  designed  to  surround  the  future 
Boston,  was  scattered  along  the  valley  on  both  sides  of  Stony  Brook  on 
a  tolerably  straight  line  for  three  miles  or  more.'  But  the  argument  by 
which  he  supported  his  discovery  -  .Id  have  had  its  substance  but  slightly 
impaired. 

With  a  brief  reference  to  the  criticisms  of  some  others,  I  left  the  episode 
to  be  forgotten.  It  had  not  occurred  to  me  that  the  memory  of  the  excur- 
sion to  Stony  Brook  was  to  take  unhappy  form  and  be  so  lasting,  until  I 
was  stung  with  the  charge  of  '' penKrsionsr-  in  a  work  to  be  sent  as  authori- 
tative over  the  world ;  and  so  I  have  been  compelled  to  defend  and  justify 
myself.  I  may,  at  the  same  time,  try  in  a  few  words  to  relieve  the  reputa- 
tion of  Winthrop  for  common-sense  from  the  shadow  that  has  unwittingly 
been  put  upon  it. 

1  I  borrow  from  .t  p.iper  in  press  two  photographs  of  a  ditch,  with  a  stone  w.ill  on  one  side  .v 
thousand  feet  in  length,  along  the  valley  of  Stony  Brook  .ind  three  miles  from  its  mouth,  of  which  the 
preliminary  cxcivations  at  Fort  Norumbega  tor  a  palisade  fur  the  future  Boston,  according  to  Mr. 
NVinsor's  guess  and  argument,  were  a  part. 

»  In  the  ••  r;ation  "  of  May  3.  1S8S,  p.  36S.  is  an  article,  among  notices  of  books,  in  which  there  are 
several  phrases  that  now  seem  almost  familiar.  For  example  :  spe.aking  of  two  books,  one  of  them 
having  been  disposed  of.  the  critic  s.iys.  "  Tlie  other  in  its  wealth  t)f  uirtoi^raphkal  .adornment  and 
sumptuousness  of  pau'c  will  carry  the  name  of  Ebtn  Xorhm  ILirstord  as  the  autlior  of  the  '  Uis- 
coverv  of  .Xmcrica  by  Ntirthmen  '  wherever  these  adventitious  aids  can  tind  for  it  ivxeplance," 
etc.  [d).  "The  .Vmencaii  Scholar  h.is  nothing  to  do  with  this  manifestation  in  his  oehali  "  {'c\. 
'•It  is  those  who  make  no  hesitation  at  pa-.o^..-n  ,ind  ignore  everything  that  does  not  serve 
Iheir  purpose,"  etc  (,  ).  "If  historical  (?)  prol  lems  are  to  be  settled  thus,  there  is  no  need  ol 
trr.inim;  ih(  judfimenf  ui).  "The  resulting  Imoks  are  more  significant  at  present  in  the  stuiiy 
of  psychology  tlian  in  the  elucidation  of  the  proMem  to  which  tiny  arc  addressed"  (<)■ 

(,i)  There  arc  .'-ome  persons  so  constituteti  as  to  he  willing  to  accept,  without  murmur,  costly 
photographs  of  rare  and  ancient  maps,  if  numerous  and  on  suitable  paper,  even  though  to  prevent 
rci>eated  foldings  th.c  gift  should  have  the  qu-arto  form. 

{f>!   Is  there  dinger  of  invasion  to  be  ipjirehended  ? 

(c )   /diversion  is  rather  a  strong  word. 

(,/)  Training  for  reieanh  might  not  lie  harmful. 

(<•)  \'anquished  again  !     But  why  proclaim  it  ? 


S' 


V  cMOMIRMIMMMMMilR 


n  R  A  I   N  T   tl  E  E 


imam 


I   fll 


BE  VE  RE 


V 


"RIVER  FLOWING  THROUGH  A  LAKE 
INTO  THE  SEAV 

VINLAND  OP  THE  NORTHMEN 

Copied  cJi^er  Ii?sLri»ctioij  t>y 

6eo.  Davis,  CMl  EPg^i^cer. 


i  9 


^    '^  SCO 

I 


f^ 


Sc*ie  of  |<iiie». 

»  «  fq-E  Of  LMf'5  f4od8t5. 

T.C.  ThowfiNHs  Cuff. 


0 


U      T 


C»>«/>«»iT   'V"'^ 


V  C  O  HA  S  S  E  T    %^ 


y 


R  A  I   N  T   il  E  E 


/ 


I    H    I    N    G    H  A   M 


WEYMOjUTH  ! 

1 uL i- 


S    c     I    T   13 


\  '■■ 


„^-  --^---.^.■■«w-wtw-»*-^CTtw:'' 


THE   PROBLEM   OF  THE  NORTHMEN. 


21 


Of  course,  a  new  exhibition  of  this  turning  to  ashes  of  the  fruit  which 
Mr,  Winsor's  method  bears,  cannot  prevent  the  pubUcation  that  took  place 

three  years  ago. 

Still  another  distinct  demonstration  may  be  due  to  those  who  have  a 
rifrht  to  know  the  weight  of  the  critic's  judgment  on  kindred  geographical 

questions. 

How  much  did  Winthrop  do  about  settlement  on  the  Charles  ? 
Winthrop  arrived  at  Salem  in  the  "Arbella"  on  the  12th  of  June.  On 
the  17th,  with  others  of  the  principal  men,  he  made  an  excursion  to  Charles- 
town  and  a  few  miles  up  the  Mystic,  seeking  a  more  desirable  place  for 
settlement  than  Salem,  returning  by  way  of  Nantasket  on  the  19th.  He 
saw  and  appreciated  the  beautiful  Ten  Hills  Farm,  and  caught  a  glimpse  of 
the  natural  advantages  of  Boston  for  the  seat  of  government. 

On  the  30th  of  May,  almost  three  weeks  before  Winthrop  made  his  first 
hurried  visit  to  Charlestown,  the  "  Mary  and  John,"  another  ship  of  Win- 
throp's  fleet,  had  arrived  at  Nantasket.     Immediately  after  landmg,  Roger 
Clap  and  some  eight  or  ten  more  of  the  passengers,  of  their  own  accord 
seekincr  a  place  to  settle,  went  with  their  baggage,  arms,  and  supplies  m 
a  boat" up  the  Charles  till  they  reached  a  point   three   leagues   from    its 
mouth,  where  the  river  was  narrow  and  shallotv.     (It  had  not  been  re- 
marked  as  either  before.     The  Charles  is  a  tidal   river   for   nine   miles. 
Shallow  does  not  apply  to  water  the  level  of   which  regularly  fluctuates 
from  six  to  ten  feet.)     The  place  they  reached  was  the  head  of  tide-water 
not  far  from  and  below  the  Watertown  of  to-day.'  five  miles  below  the  mouth 
of  Stony  Brook.     They  found  in  the  neighborhood  an  encampment  of  three 
hundred  Indians,  some  of  whom  were  taking  fish  in  the  shallow  water  above 
the  head  of  tide-water.     It  was  called  by  Josslyn.  a  few  years  later  (1638),  a 

ihc  fall  occurs.     Fort  Nnrumbeg..  is  .t  the  --"^^  0/^-7 ^^7,  ^  ^^L.  of  the  future  Boston 

:s;^  f^r  s.;^  ?;^;;2.=^"  -:^^-  -  --  --^^  - — 


j2  THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  NORTHMEN. 

''fall  of  fresh  waters  which  conveigh  themselves  into  the  ocean  through 
Charles  River,  a  little  below  the  fall  of  which  they  [the  inhabitants]  have 
a  weir  to  catch  fish."  Clap's  party  went  no  farther.  No  other  party  of 
which  there  is  any  record  went  so  far,  though  visiting  messengers  passed  up 
and  down.* 

I  have  been  able  to  find  evidence  that  Winthrop  and  his  party  went  up 
the  Mystic  River,  but  no  evidence  that  he,  with  or  without  a  party,  went  up 
any  other  river  in  the  neighborhood,  or  that  he  directed  the  party  that 
discovered  the  convenient  spot  on  which  to  found  their  town,  inasmuch  as 
they  started  on  their  expedition  a  fortnight  before  Winthrop  arrived  ni  the 
country,  and  nearly  three  weeks  before  he  came  to  Charlestown. 

The  first  order  that  Clap  and  his  party,  the  "  westerne  men,"  received 
from  Winthrop,  or  any  representative  of  the  government,  so  far  as  I  have 
been  able  to  find,  was  to  abandon  Watertown  and  go  to  Dorchester. 

How  do  we  know  that  Clap's  party  did  not  go  above  Watertown  ? 

The  record  is  that  they  went  "  three  leagues  tip  Charles  River  "  to  where 
the  river  was  "  narrow  and  shallow."  The  mouth  of  the  river  was  between 
Copp's  Hill  and  Noddle's  Island  (East  Boston).  Watertown  is  nine  miles 
above,  along  the  Charles.  At  this  point  they  unloaded  their  baggage  and 
supplies,  and  sheltered  themselves  as  best  they  could  ////  their  embarkation 
for  Dorchester,  to  which,  in  viezu  of  the  war  news  from  France,  they  were 
peremptorily  ordered  about  the  1 2th  of  fuly. 

They  could  not  have  gone  farther  by  water  if  they  had  desired  to,  be- 
cause, as  they  observed,  their  boat  with  the  baggage  and  supplies  could 
not  ascend  the  shallozu  rapids  and  fall  at  the  head  of  tide-water. 

But  why  could  they  not  have  gone  by  land? 

Because  they  discovered  a  great  body  of  Indians  in  their  path,  of  whom 
they  —  only  eight  or  ten  in  number — were  naturally  afraid,  and  against 
whom  they  maintained  a  guard  at  night. 

*  The  Watertown  of  Saltonstall  was  in  the  region  of  the  present  Norwood  Park  and  tlic  ceme- 
tery at  the  corner  of  Arlington  Street  on  the  liigh  road  from  Cambridge,  west,  about  the  sources  of  the 
numerous  springs  and  rivulets  that  unite  to  m.ake  a  stream  emptying  into  the  Charles  below  the  bridge 
against  the  Brighton  Abattoir. 


meim  ■ 


THE   PR0I5LEM   OF  THE   NORTHMEN. 


23 


In  conclusion :  Mr.  Winsor,  pursuing  his  method  of  geographical  re- 
search, including  the  examination  of  the  historical  records,  and  a  single 
visit  of  an  hour  to  the  locality  to  which  I  personally  introduced  him,  finds 
the  remains  of  what  he  prefers  to  regard  the  foundations  of  a  fortified 
early  Boston,  the  future  capital  of  the  Colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  the 
work  of  Winthrop's  men,  at  the  mouth  of  Stony  Brook  on  the  Charles, 
fourteen  miles  from  its  mouth. 

By  my  method,  with  the  same  materials,  I  fail  to  find  any  evidence 
that  any  of  Winthrop's  company  were  nearer  ti  Stony  Brook  than  Water- 
town,  some  five  miles  away,  till  long  after  the  seat  of  government  had  been 
established  on  the  present  site  of  Boston. 

As  I  have  demonstrated  that  the  works  at  the  mouth  of  Stony  Brook 
were  known  and  had  been  described  some  three  hundred  and  fifty  years 
ago,  and  as  I  had  placed  the  printed  copy  of  my  demonstration  in  the 
hands  of  Mr.  Winsor  long  before  his  communication  on  the  site  of  the 
abandoned  Boston  was  given  to  the  public,  and  as  I  have  now,  upon  his 
challenge,  pointed  out  how  one  may  estimate  the  value  of  his  method  of 
investigating  a  geographical  question  where  he  had  before  him  everything 
needed  for  forming  a  just  judgment,—  I  think  I  may  feel  that  I  have  vin- 
dicated the  honor  of  your  publication  of  my  letter  of  four  years  ago  in  the 
"  Bulletin  of  the  American  Geographical  Society." 

You  will,  I  think,  agree  with  me,  that  Massachusetts  is  still  open  to 
students  of  its  geography  and  early  history. 

I  am  very  respectfully  yours, 

EBEN   NORTON  HORSFORD. 
Cambridge,  June  i,  1889. 


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